Papal Audience & The Scavi

On Wednesday, we woke up early in order to go to the Papal Audience. We were about two hours early, so I took my time wandering around St. Peter’s square just taking all of it in. Once the rest of the group met up with us, we went into the auditorium where the audience was to be held. I sat with Grandpa and Andrea, who kept Sarah entertained with rock, paper, scissors, and I Spy. When the pope finally came onto the stage, everyone kind of went wild. He addressed everyone there in different languages such as Italian, German, Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese. It was pretty cool, but I had trouble staying awake as I hadn’t slept well the night before. I went to lunch with the Mitchell’s afterward. The cafe we ate at was utter chaos. It was nice to have the boys there to interpret for us. We had to order at one counter, pay at another, and go back to the first to get our food. As we ate, Fr. Jason relayed to us what was being said on an Italian news station. They were discussing the difference in the north and the south economies, which highly interested me. Basically the north works and supports the south, and they were debating about where the north ends and the south begins.

After lunch, those of us going on the Scavi tour met up at the Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square and headed back toward St. Peter’s. I toured with Mrs. Mitchell, Linda, David, Kevin, Krista, Theresa, Joe, Jeremy, and Andrea. Our guide was excellent at explaining the layers of the Scavi and how they would have been throughout the centuries. It started as an above ground cemetery for Pagan families. It was basically a city unto itself with streets weaving among the tombs. She explained that often families were buried together and in cases the coffins were reused. There was one family that actually had their slaves buried outside of their tombs. As time went on, secret Christians would leave symbols on their tombs to denote that they were of the Christian faith, many of them the first converts. At some point, Constantino decided to build a Basilica on the site of St. Peter’s tomb. In order to do so, he had to level the hill it was to sit on and he used all of the dirt to cover up the cemetery in order to build a foundation for the church. It was only in 1939 when Pope Pius XI left in his will that he wanted to be buried by St. Peter, that the Scavi was even found. There were five archeologists who worked in secret throughout WWII to uncover what they could. St. Peter’s bones weren’t found in the original burial site, but outside the right wall. They found his bones, but not his feet. It is assumed, that since he was crucified upside down, they cut his feet off in order to make for a hasty burial. I definitely want to find a book on the Scavi and read up on it.

After the tour, we went to St. Anne’s for Fr. Jason’s first mass. Mgsr. Herbein joined us. Fr. Michael’s homily dealt with parents and grandparents, their’s in particular.

After mass, we went with the Grays again to see the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon at night. It was cool to see them all lit up.